1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a light shielding structure of a retractable lens barrel.
2. Description of the Related Art
A light shielding structure of a retractable lens barrel in which a light shielding member for preventing harmful light such as stray light from entering into an optical path of the lens barrel is supported by a lens frame that supports one or more lens groups is known in the art.
In a retractable lens barrel having such a conventional light shielding structure, the light shielding member is required to be disposed at a position sufficiently apart from the lens frame because the distance between adjacent lens groups varies greatly. This requirement tends to be significant in the case of a retractable zoom lens barrel which adopts a zoom lens optical system having a high zoom ratio; moreover, this retractable zoom lens barrel requires a lens-group-position adjusting mechanism or the like. This makes it even more difficult to achieve a reduction in length of the retractable zoom lens barrel and miniaturization of the zoom lens barrel.